Andrew Strunk

BREAKING: LEADERSHIP! Sen. Chris Van Hollen demands that Congress REMOVE the borderline treasonous provisions in the defense bill that would entwine the U.S. military with Israel. This man is one hell of a fighter... "Today, I led 11 of my Senate colleagues in calling on House & Senate leadership to strip the upcoming defense bill of provisions that MANDATE defense & intelligence cooperation with Israel — including one advanced by Netanyahu himself," Van Hollen wrote on X. He reshared a video from July in which he outlined the problems in detail— "A little while ago, I got off the Senate floor, where I urged my colleagues to vote no tomorrow to advance the National Defense Authorization Bill," said the senator. "And I gave three reasons..." "One, it's a bloated budget to a Pentagon that continues to fail to pass an audit. Number two, no restraints on Trump's illegal war against Iran, essentially giving a green light to that illegal war that's been disastrous for the American people." "But there are two provisions that have gotten very little attention, that are kind of crawling through quietly. Both have to do with greater support to the government of Israel," Van Hollen explained. "One of them is a provision Netanyahu has taken credit for pushing, which would require more joint defense cooperation between the United States and Israel." Netanyahu has indeed been pushing for this measure and it's easy to see why. The American people have soured on Israel as an ally thanks to the atrocities in Gaza. We don't want to see our tax dollars flowing overseas to kill innocent Palestinians. Recognizing that shifting opinions mean their blank check days are over, Israel wants to mutate America's support into a more opaque, yet no less lethal, form. They want to mandate a deep entanglement of our countries, using our national-security apparatus to secure their own interests. "We know from our own experience that Israel has previously vetoed our ability to act in our own national security interests when we wanted to send some weapon systems to Ukraine that had been co-produced with Israel," said Van Hollen. "And Israel blocked us from doing it." "Another provision requires, mandates, that the U.S. government share more intelligence with the government of Israel," he went on. "Look, we can share intelligence with the government of Israel or any other government when we want. Why would the United States Congress order the executive branch to share more intelligence, regardless of what the government of Israel is doing? Why would we be doing that? We shouldn't." "It's not in our national security interests to do it. We can always choose, on a case-by-case basis, to do whatever we want. Let's not mandate it," he concluded. We commend Senator Van Hollen for taking a stand on this issue. This country has suffered enough from Israel First politicians choosing that foreign country's priorities over what's best for Americans. Van Hollen's name has been bubbling up amongst the Democratic base since the blue tsunami, with many calling for him to challenge Chuck Schumer for the Senate Majority Leadership. He says he “hasn’t shut the door" on the possibility. What do you think? Please ❤️ and share if you support Senator Van Hollen!